Republican ratf---ing

Republicans helped recruit Jasmine Crockett into the Texas Senate race. They may try to influence the primary in Maine, too.

The political slang for meddling in another party’s primary is ratfucking. Parties do it to try to help less electable candidates win their party’s nomination. In North Carolina, Democrats don’t need to meddle in Republican primaries because the GOP nominates people like Mark Robinson without any meddling.

However, in other states, Democrats have helped Republicans nominate unelectable, or at least less electable, candidates in governor, House, and Senate races. One of the most famous incidents occurred when Democrats helped nominate Todd Akin, a right-wing Congressman from Missouri, in 2012. Akin infamously declared that women can’t get pregnant if they are raped because “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down”

In the GOP primary, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent more than the Akin campaign on ads helping him secure the nomination. Incumbent Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill went on to win the general election and helped Democrats keep control of the Senate. Since then, Democratic-aligned organizations have worked to nominate more favorable opponents in numerous races.

This year, Republicans are playing in Democratic primaries. The National Republican Senatorial Committee spent the summer and fall urging Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett to jump into the Democratic primary for Senate. This week, she announced her candidacy and immediately begins the race as the frontrunner.

While Texas is still a reliably Republican state, it’s been trending Democratic for years. Republican Senator John Cornyn is running for re-election but trails Attorney General Ken Paxton, a far-right Republican with a trove of ethical problems. The party worries that a strong Democratic candidate could win against a damaged Paxton. They believe Crockett’s reputation as a firebrand is a liability.

Republicans started adding Crockett’s name to polls of Democratic primary voters and found she led candidates Colin Allred, a former Congressman who gave Ted Cruz a scare in 2024, and James Talarico, a telegenic young state Representative and pastor who’s built a following for his common touch. The GOP used social media to spread the poll results, urging people to call for Crockett to enter the race. They even called Crockett supporters and connected them directly to her office. They called it “an astroturf recruitment process.”

Crockett’s supporters believe that she’s the type of fighter Democrats need and that she will drive up turnout among the base. They also believe that her sharp tongue and biting insults reflect Trump’s tactics and will help her more than hurt her. The difference is that Trump attacked both Republicans and Democrats, building an independent movement of people who wanted to burn the system down. Crockett is a pretty traditional Democrat and she will need support from moderate and conservative independents to win.

Personally, I wish Crockett would stay in the House. She has a role to play as an attack dog unafraid to call out Republicans in a way that excites the Democratic base. As a candidate for statewide office, she’s going to need to remake herself as someone less concerned with Trump and more concerned with Texans. She may excite the Democratic base to come out to vote for her, but she’s also going to excite a lot of pro-Trump voters who might otherwise sit out the election to go vote against her. I also suspect she’ll have a hard time appealing to the conservative-leaning independents she’ll need to beat the Republican because she’s seen as a Democratic firebrand.

Republicans could also play in the Democratic primary in Maine. According to one poll, newcomer Graham Platner leads Governor Janet Mills by 20 points in the US Senate primary in Maine. Platner has positioned himself as a young progressive outsider while Mills is a 77-year-old establishment candidate with relatively low-approval ratings.

Maine is a must-win state if Democrats want to have a chance of taking the Senate in 2026. Incumbent Republican Susan Collins has not declared her candidacy yet, but the state has increasingly voted Democratic in recent years, supporting both Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and electing Mills governor twice. Maine’s other Senator is independent Angus King.

Republicans would probably prefer to face Platner than Mills, especially if Collins runs for re-election. North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis called Platner “a less challenging candidate in the general election.” While neither Collins nor Mills is very popular, they both reflect the moderate views of the state and are proven entities, having won numerous times statewide. Republicans believe Platner, who has a history of making controversial remarks on social media, would be easier to define as extreme or out-of-touch with Mainers.

Republicans may inadvertently help Democrats resolve the electability debate that has been tearing at the party. Progressives have long believed that Democrats lose because they don’t offer up candidates who take on a system that’s rigged to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. They want fighters who will call out oligarchs and the excesses of capitalism.

Liberals believe that Democrats, especially in swing states, need to make more modest appeals focusing a strong safety net and creating economic opportunities. They generally want candidates who have worked within the system to make incremental but permanent changes.

Platner exemplifies the progressives’ ideal candidate. He talks about the oligarchy and a system that has left people behind. He attacks the rich and owns an outsider personae, embracing his job as a blue-collar oysterman. If he can get past Mills in the primary, he can prove the progressives’ theory that attacking the system yields better results than supporting it even in swing states.

While Democrats have historically been more aggressive about helping choose their opponents, this year, Republicans are playing hard in Democratic primaries to get preferable challengers in a difficult election cycle. The move could always backfire. Crockett may get traction in a general election by drawing a sharp division between her and her opponent. Platner may really reflect the views of disaffected voters including those who would otherwise sit out the election. First, both need to get through their primaries.